What’s worse? Downloading your favourite TV show illegally or returning a t-shirt to a shop that you have actually worn?

Is fare evading as bad as telling your insurance company you had something stolen when you really lost it?

A Queensland University of Technology researcher has embarked on a study to discover how Australian consumers rank acceptable, questionable, and unacceptable behaviour.

It’s no surprise that using stolen credit cards for internet shopping was considered a major no-no.

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But Paula Dootman also found that people considered some illegal activities more acceptable than other things that could be considered dishonest.

Lying about the age of a child in order to get a discount and failing to mention that the waitress had miscalculated the bill in your favour were frowned upon more than illegal internet downloading.

According to her study of more than 300 Australian consumers, Ms Dootman said about 50 per cent believed illegal downloading was unacceptable. However, in some cases, holding that belief didn’t stop people from going ahead anyway.

“Illegal downloading was justified on the basis that organisations weren’t giving people access,” Ms Dootman said.

“They felt it was the organisation’s responsibility, and if they weren't going to give access it was completely acceptable to illegally download it”.

The legality of other behaviour was less clear, such as signing up for an American iTunes account to get cheaper downloads and access material not sold on the online Australian store.

Doing that is actually illegal.

“They justified it because the organisation was still getting money, so it’s better than illegally downloading but they weren’t sure the number of laws they were actually breaking,” she said.

Ms Dootman said she believed tougher laws were not the solution to make customers more honest, but companies needed to find ways to convince people not to steal. In other words, take them on a guilt trip.

Ms Dootman uses the analogy of buying tomatoes at the supermarket self-check out. What could prevent someone from sneakily entering in a cheaper type of tomato to get a discount?

“Maybe something needs to come up on the screen of the self-check out saying you’ve just denied this supplier with this many dollars that should have gone to them,” she said.

Ms Dootman said every person had a different “deviance threshold”.

The problem with most consumer deviance is it goes undetected so people don’t really feel like they’re getting punished for it, which in turn is re-enforcing their behaviours,” she said.

An international research project released last year concluded that shoplifting and till errors costs Australian businesses $2.4 billion each year.

To make up for it, an extra was $290 passed on to the average household per annum.

Ms Dootman’s research will be released when her thesis is published later this year.

How people ranked consumer behaviours based on acceptability (1 = most acceptable, 10 = least acceptable) - do you agree?

1. Using the 4 cent a litre fuel voucher from the grocery store to buy petrol

2. Creating a fake US iTunes account to access and pay for content not available in Australia - illegal

3. Returning merchandise to a store by claiming it was a gift when it was not

4. Saying there are two people staying in a holiday apartment when there are really four - organisational policy violation

5. Illegally downloading TV shows from the internet for free, for personal consumption

6. Lying about a child's age in order to get a lower price - organisational policy violation

7. Not saying anything when the waitress miscalculates the bill in your favour

8. Evading a fare on public transport - illegal

9. Reporting a lost item as 'stolen' to an insurance company to collect the money - illegal

10. Using a stolen credit cards to order goods over the internet - illegal

43 comments so far

There is nothing wrong with number 1, but the other 9 are illegal and wrong. But this survey was of 300 people so it is nothing worth talking about % wise I get a better result in my house.

Commenter

Pat

Date and time

June 11, 2014, 1:19PM

I think the worst of all is claiming to be a politician who is in it for the people, when really you are in it for your own personal gain.

Commenter

Scotty

Date and time

June 11, 2014, 2:47PM

I think the idea for #1 and #10 would be to choose two self-serving decisions, one legal and 'earnt' the other levels of illegality and hurting an innocent person - to see where they end up on the list as controlsthey ended up in the right places, giving more credence to the other results

Commenter

Raida

Location

chewing salty razors

Date and time

June 11, 2014, 3:44PM

That's an interesting concept "illegal"...recent surveys have calculated that approximately 76% of Australians have, at one time, downloaded a movie, tv show, or music for personal use.

I don't know where you're from, but when 76% of a DEMOCRACY chose to do something, it is no longer illegal.

Think I'm crazy? Switzerland, the Netherlands and Spain all have instated laws that it's now legal to download copyright material from the internet for personal use. Because these countries believe that law should reflect society and not be used as a way to protect outdated business models for monopoly corporations.

The entire EU recently voted to ban copyright lobby groups from using terms like "pirate", "stealing" and "theft"...they also recently voted down legislation criminalising copyright infringement...they didn't just vote it down, they all stood in unison holding signs that read "Hello Democracy, Goodbye ACTA" (ACTA being the legislation that was thrown out).

Commenter

adamj

Date and time

June 11, 2014, 4:49PM

I think Scotty just got comment of the day.

Commenter

Mads

Date and time

June 11, 2014, 5:25PM

...no what is immoral is software, music and video companies in the US charging Australians over doubt the price they do in America....leading to...not surprisingly....illegal downloads!!!! I think most people here would pay a fair price for TV shows etc rather be gouged as is occurring at the moment.

Commenter

Ripoff

Date and time

June 11, 2014, 5:53PM

adamj

that is just plain stupid, when does a majority have anything to do with legality?

so by your logic, if I can convince the majority of Australians that it is ok to steal money from a bank then this would become legal?

What if a the majority of a people (eg women) said it was not a crime to kill men if you feel like it?

What if say a particular skin colour decided you could abuse another skin colour?

Commenter

LB

Location

Ipswich

Date and time

June 11, 2014, 9:23PM

+1, Scotty. Or bringing down a budget that attacks the most vulnerable, and describing legitimate criticism as "class warfare". Get Hockey on a treadmill to generate power so he can learn how to serve.

Commenter

Shaslik

Date and time

June 12, 2014, 7:37AM

@adamj - BRAVO!!! Couldn't have said it better myself. +1

Commenter

Chris

Date and time

June 12, 2014, 8:07AM

Dishonesty is absolutely prolific at ALL levels in government, society and business. We see corporations and whole governments lying and deceiving without any conscience and employing spin doctors to convince us that they aren't really lying, well not badly anyway. We see laws being made that are wrong and immoral BUT have to be followed because they are laws and you will be ILLEGAL if you dont.Dont blame the common person in society when the so-called leaders and respectable people cant lie straight in bed.to save their lives or our society. If our leaders cant be bothered to be honest then why should anyone else miss out ???